For an aged list of some of the many bad guys, click here for your entertainment.
A Surprise and Shocking page suddenly covers your screen with bright and scary images and text announcing that you machine has detected an infection! The more recent ones show you rolling text like it is scanning your machine and it displays the viruses it is finding!
Important: You may see this so soon after reboot that nothing else is running yet. Amazing trick it is. The windows you see really do look like authentic Microsoft windows or your antivirus. It is part of the fraud!
Don't you believe it!
It is trying to trigger a fright response in your emotions and make you click on "Click Here to Fix" or "remove" or some such calming message.
Don't you do it!
It is a lie! All you are seeing is like a movie commercial.
Probably the most for sure and efective action on your part is to try one of these actions, in this order!
Hit Alt-F4 (Close Window)
Close the browser.
Shut down the computer and reboot.
Or pull the plug
Once you Click on something, the seed you currently have looaded into your display (memory) have will activate and installed software that will initialize the virus on the next restart of your system
I am sad to inform you that a small number of the newest ones have already tried to install that Seed. If you have a good Anti Virus running, most of them will catch that attempt to install the seed and block it. You are safe.
...otherwise you will start getting Browser pop-ups that keep harassing you. They want you to click on a button or link that will send you to a web page where you can "Buy" the fix.
Don't do it!
It is a fraud. One of these things will happen:
Nothing. You will still have the problem. One of my customers actually tried to buy it a second time. So sad.
You will buy a product that claims to be a better Anti Virus or Anti Spyware. it is really a trojan that "pretends" to scan your machine and gives you messages that make you think it is working.
You will install an even more sneaky trojan that just hibernates until a remote computer commands it into action.
It will activate a virus that is destructive, or has a software defect in it that crashes you machine, or other unhappiness.
At this point, try to ignore the messages popping up and work around them Start your Anti-Virus Scan and see if it can fix it.
Otherwise you will have to get expensive professional help at this point, else Restore your machine to Original new machine state. Most casual users will not be able to do that.
If you bring you machine to me for repair at this point, the labor will be two to three hours charge, about a 24 hours turn around time, best case. As I get familiar and learn the new viruses, the time dimishes to around an hour.